HISTORY APPEARS to be repeating itself in Guinea after the death of one of Africa's longest-running authoritarian rulers, Lansana Conté.
Conté came to power in a military coup in 1984 after the death of his predecessor. The army suspended the constitution and parliament, and Conté established a committee for national recovery.
Elements of the military seem to be following the same blueprint after the president's death yesterday as they announced they had seized power and were setting up a committee, supposedly to save the country.
It was not clear last night if the army had taken control.
The president leaves behind one of Africa's least democratic nations, despite regular elections. In 2006 the anti-corruption organisation Transparency International judged Guinea the most corrupt country in the world, alongside Haiti.
When Ahmed Sekou Toure, who led Guinea from independence, died in March 1984 the prime minister, Louis Lansana Beavogui, served as president for just a month before Conté, a former army officer who was elected to the national assembly in 1980, toppled him in a coup, suspended the constitution and banned political activity. The military proclaimed Conté president.
Within a year, he was compelled to resist attempts to remove him from power - the first led by former prime minister Diarra Traore, who was executed along with about 100 rebel soldiers.
Conté won favour in the West by turning away from his predecessor's left-wing policies with IMF-backed cuts in government spending and a currency devaluation.
Under pressure from backers in Europe and America, he began a transition to multiparty rule in the early 1990s with the collapse of communism. But he never relinquished real power.
In 1993 he won the first multiparty presidential election since independence with just over half the vote amid allegations of fraud. He won again five years later, and a third term five years ago with 95 per cent of the vote after all but one opposition candidate boycotted the ballot as rigged.
He survived an assassination attempt in January 2005. - ( Guardianservice)